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The Iowa Hawkeyes picked up their first loss of the season over the weekend as they fell 99-88 to the top-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs. After playing neck-and-neck for a good part of the first half, Gonzaga caught fire from deep and pulled away. Iowa battled back to get the deficit to single-digits, but at the end of the day the Hawkeyes lost by 11 to what is clearly the best team in the nation.
On Monday, that was reflected in the polls as the Zags picked up votes as the #1 team in the AP. For their part, the Hawkeyes dropped just one spot from #3 to #4 after the loss. They were passed up by Kansas, who was previously #6 and has already lost to Gonzaga this year 102-90 in their season opener. The Jayhawks, however, got a 58-57 win over #14 Texas Tech last week propelling them up two spots.
Here’s a look at the full poll:
- Gonzaga (61 first place votes)
- Baylor (3 first place votes)
- Kansas
- Iowa
- Villanova
- Houston
- West Virginia
- Tennessee
- Wisconsin
- Texas
- Rutgers
- Michigan State
- Creighton
- Missouri
- Texas Tech
- Virginia
- North Carolina
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Duke
- Florida State
- Xavier
- Ohio State
- Virginia Tech
- Oregon
In total, seven of the Big Ten’s 14 teams find themselves in the top-25. That’s the most of any conference in America. The Big Ten also has a pair of teams in the top-10 with Wisconsin joining Iowa. Rutgers and Michigan State are just outside the top-10 making it four Big Ten teams in the top-15.
Rutgers jumped up eight spots this week after taking down Illinois over the weekend. The Illini fell five spots to 18th after picking up their third loss of the year. Michigan State was the biggest mover on the week as they fell eight spots. That came on the heels of a 14-point loss to Northwestern which should put Iowa’s battle with Gonzaga into a bit of perspective for Hawkeye fans.
Iowa is set to kick off their Big Ten slate on Tuesday as they play host to Purdue at 8pm on BTN. The Hawkeyes are one of four Big Ten teams yet to start conference play.